Questions tagged [finnegans-wake]

Questions about James Joyce's final novel Finnegans Wake (1939). Use with the [james-joyce] tag.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
11 votes
2 answers
5k views

Why is Gravity’s Rainbow considered postmodern, yet Finnegans Wake is not?

Why is Gravity’s Rainbow considered postmodern, yet Finnegans Wake is not? Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) has been received as a canonical instance of postmodernism. See Pynchon, ...
fundagain's user avatar
  • 1,943
4 votes
0 answers
87 views

What is the full wordplay that Joyce employs in "siparioramoci" in Finnegans Wake?

What is the full wordplay that Joyce employs in "Siparioramoci" from Finnegans Wake Part III Chapter 2 [468.20]. It arises in the following short paragraph quoted in full. A long winded Jaun/...
fundagain's user avatar
  • 1,943
5 votes
2 answers
314 views

Where is the yellow in "pasqualines" from Finnegans Wake?

Can we see the color yellow in the word "pasqualines" from Finnegans Wake chapter III.2? Shaun as Jaun is lecturing to his sister Issy and her 28 rainbow girls. [432.30] Is it rubrics, ...
fundagain's user avatar
  • 1,943
3 votes
0 answers
113 views

How is it possible to create a definitive edition of Finnegans Wake?

In recent news, the publisher Houyhnhnm Press released a limited edition copy of Finnegans Wake based on 30 years of work by scholars to refine and revise the text. There are apparently some 9000 ...
Matt Thrower's user avatar
  • 22.1k
2 votes
0 answers
157 views

In Finnegans Wake, is Shem dead tonight?

Is Shem dead tonight? I was alerted to this possibility, non-authoritatively, by Porter Girl, whose name provides further "proof" that Joyce wrote all his significant future readers into ...
fundagain's user avatar
  • 1,943
3 votes
1 answer
243 views

In chapter I.5 of Finnegans Wake, how are the "paper wounds" ordered?

In chapter I.5 [page 124 line 3] of Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, the "Stop. Please stop. Do please stop. O do please stop" motif is associated with four punctuation marks. These paper ...
fundagain's user avatar
  • 1,943
2 votes
1 answer
292 views

Did Joyce "estimate" how many readers would understand Finnegans Wake?

I'm pretty sure I once (a long time ago) read a Joyce quote where he said that only twelve (or was it thirteen?) readers would ever fully understand Finnegans Wake. But I couldn't convince Google to ...
Frunobulax's user avatar
16 votes
3 answers
4k views

Meaning of "bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthur-nuk!"

From Finnegans Wake, What is the meaning of this word? In context: The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthur- nuk!) of a once ...
user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
164 views

In Finnegans Wake, what could "enos chalked halltraps" refer to?

In Finnegans Wake, what could the phrase "enos chalked halltraps" refer to? Some, possibly flawed, attempt at pest control? [30.1] Now (to forebare for ever solittle of Iris Trees and Lili ...
fundagain's user avatar
  • 1,943
2 votes
1 answer
340 views

Does Joyce, in Finnegans Wake or Ulysses, link the sound form "hoe" to "whore"?

Does Joyce, in Finnegans Wake or Ulysses, link the sound form "hoe" to "whore", as in the current day "ho"? For example, is it probable that Joyce intended the (additional) modern day pun in the ...
fundagain's user avatar
  • 1,943
4 votes
1 answer
153 views

Does "egourge" in Finnegans Wake derive from the Greek "egoourgos" meaning "worker for the self"?

Finnwake.com claims that "egourge", in the following line from Finnegans Wake (p.g. 49-50), derives from "egoourgos (gr) - worker for the self", but Google Translate does not seem to know of any word "...
fundagain's user avatar
  • 1,943
12 votes
1 answer
391 views

Who wrote the well-known Outline of Chapter Contents in the Penguin edition of Finnegans Wake?

Who wrote the well-known Outline of Chapter Contents in the Penguin edition of Finnegans Wake? Wikipedia describes the structure of Finnegans Wake as follows. Finnegans Wake comprises seventeen ...
fundagain's user avatar
  • 1,943
4 votes
2 answers
82 views

Joyce, Nora Barnacle and Papishee

On page 75 of A Reader's Guide to Finnegan Wake, in analysis of the line "to league his lot, palm and patte, with a papishee [62.9]", Tindall links "papishee" with both ALP and Nora, but without any ...
fundagain's user avatar
  • 1,943
7 votes
0 answers
612 views

In Finnegans Wake, surely these two characters are different, and one is dead?

Since the motivation and argument supporting my question is long, but the question itself is fairly short, I will state the question as a spoiler. If the answer turns out to be indeed yes, then it ...
fundagain's user avatar
  • 1,943
6 votes
0 answers
304 views

In Finnegans Wake, surely the dreamer is this character?

As I see it, Finnegans Wake has two main sections, namely Section A (“dreamland” [1-617.29]) and Section B (“anna’s interior monologue” [617.30-628]). Section A and Section B are my terms and there is ...
fundagain's user avatar
  • 1,943
8 votes
2 answers
1k views

What does Nuvoletta's disappearance signify in Finnegans Wake?

I am studying Samuel Barber's art song "Nuvoletta", whose text is adapted from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. I have not studied Finnegans Wake. The music is very beautiful. As I understand it, ...
Violapterin's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
3k views

What languages should one know to appreciate Finnegans Wake?

I have heard it said that Finnegans Wake is a great work, and my impression is that every sentence has one or two words being a pun of an English word and at least one valid word of another language. ...
Violapterin's user avatar